Home / Ruttenber, E.M. Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names in the Valley of Hudson's River, the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware. Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. VI. 1906. / Passage

Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names

Ruttenber, E.M. Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names in the Valley of Hudson's River, the Valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware. Published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, Vol. VI. 1906. 318 words

Ramapo Pass, beginning about a mile below Pierson's, is fourteen miles long. (See Pompton.) Wynokie, now so written as the name of a stream flowing to the Pequannock at Pompton, takes that name from a beautiful valley through which it passes, about thirteen miles northwest of Paterson. The stream is the outlet of Greenwood Lake and is entered on old maps as the Ringwood. The name is in several orthographies-- Wanaque, Wynogkee, Wynachkee, etc. It is from the root kee.) "Good, fine, pleasant," and -aki, land or place. (See Wynog- Win,

Pamerpock, 1674, now preserved in Pamrepo as the name of a village in the northwest part of the city of Bayonne, N. J., is probably another form of Peme-apuchk, "Slanting rock." ^ (See Ramapo.) The niame seems to have been widely distributed. The name seems to have been widely distributed. Hohokus, the name of a village and of a railroad station, is probably from Mehbkhdkus (Zeisb.), "Red cedar." It was, presumably, primarily at least, a place where red cedar abounded. The Indian name of the stream here is written Raighkazvack , an orthography of

' Dr. John C. Smock, late State Geologist of New Jersey, wrote me of the location of the name at Suffern : "There is the name of the stream and the name of the settlement (in Rockland County, near the New Jersey line), and the land is low-lying, and along the creek, and above a forks, i. e. above the forks at Suffern. On the 1774 map in my possession, Romapock is certainly the present Ramapo. The term 'Slanting rock' is eminently applicable to that vicinity." The Ramapock Patent of 1704 covered 42,500 acres, and, with the name, followed the mountains as its western boundary. 2 Feme is Pemi in the Massachusetts dialect. "It may generally be translated by 'sloping' or 'aslant.' In Abnaki Pemadene (Pemi-adene) denotes a sloping mountain side," wrote Dr.